The work of Benet Rossell (Àger, 1937 – Barcelona, 2016) is essential to understand the evolution of Catalan art of the second half of the twentieth century.

Poet, filmmaker and visual artist, Rossell was one of the protagonists of the emergence of conceptual practices and performance. Coexisting with his experimental cinematographic work, the artist showed a particular interest in drawing, taking up the trade of doll maker with the same avant-garde spirit of Paul Klee or Saul Steinberg. He merged drawing with calligraphy, sometimes miniaturised (micrographs to look at with a magnifying glass), and finally took it to the realms of painting. Central and marginal at the same time, with his radicalism and sensitivity, Benet Rossell establishes points of confluence between conceptual art and the most lyrical and plastic art.

The donation of an important set of his work to the Museu Nacional by the artist’s widow, Cristina Giorgi, allows us to appreciate the diversity of pieces and Rossell’s great inventiveness. This is a key contribution to the museum's post-war and second avant-garde art collection.

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